“Valmont’s investment in technology seeks to reduce food scarcity and rising input costs by creating operational efficiencies that allow growers to accomplish more with fewer resources.”
Troy Long, Vice President, Hardware Product, Valley Irrigation.
Farmers across the globe are facing an ultimate two-fold challenge—meeting growing world food demands while lowering their carbon footprint. Growers are actively working to substantially reinvent day-to-day operations, integrating more efficiency and technology to beat these challenges.
As leaders in agriculture technology, Valley and AgSense continue to identify solutions that empower growers to maximize the potential of their fields—in ways that conserve resources and improve lives. One example of this is the AgSense product line of remote irrigation management devices. This advanced technology combines Valley Irrigation equipment and remote irrigation technology. Whether at home or from their vehicle, on a smartphone or at a computer, farmers can remotely monitor and control irrigation equipment in their fields and access information important to land productivity, such as soil moisture levels, pivot performance, weather conditions and more.
An integrated farming operation can include multiple technologies working together across the farm to provide growers with critical information to help make irrigation decisions. Sensors can be placed throughout a field to collect data but rely on software to make the data meaningful. To date, Valley and AgSense have helped deploy more than 144,000 connected devices across 63 countries. The devices enable growers to collect important data to understand the current field conditions better and then use that data to remotely manage their irrigation machines, eliminating the need to drive back and forth to their fields.
In addition to the ability to make more informed decisions about when and how much to irrigate and apply treatments, this technology also saves a significant amount of time and carbon emissions. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), approximately 19.64 pounds of CO2 is created per gallon of gasoline burned. Advanced technology drastically reduces the number of trips to and from fields, which empowers them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Prior to implementing these advanced technologies, pivot irrigation proved to reduce water use by approximately 40% over traditional irrigation methods. However, the addition of remote management tools further amplifies a farmer’s ability to place the right amount of water and fertilizer at the precise time and location it’s needed. Combined with fuel savings, as a result of monitoring and managing fields remotely, growers have never been better equipped to use fewer resources while producing more crops to meet both hunger and environmental needs.